ARTICLE 90
Table of Contents
Paragraphs
Text of Article 90
Introductory Note
General Survey
1-2
..
.,.».
3-9
Annex. Sessions of the Trusteeship Council
TEXT OF ARTICLE 90
1. The Trusteeship Council shall adopt its own rules of procedure,
including the method of selecting its President.
2. The Trusteeship Council shall meet as required in accordance with
its rules, which shall include provision for the convening of meetings on
the request of a majority of its members.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
1. The present study, like that of Article 90 in the Repertory, is confined to those
features of the procedures of the Trusteeship Council which have not been dealt with
in connexion with other Articles of the Charter. This study, therefore, does not deal
with the procedural topics that fall under Articles 86, 87, 88, 89 and 91*
2. In the somewhat restricted field which is left, the procedures of the Council have
remained virtually unchanged. The rules of procedure have been amended only in the
minor respects described in the General Survey. These changes have not involved
questions requiring treatment in the Analytical Summary of Practice; no such summary
is contained in the present study therefore.
I. GENERAL SURVEY
3« The only amendments to the rules of procedure adopted by the Trusteeship Council
during the period covered by the present study were those consequent on the admission
of Italy as a Member of the United Nations and its assumption of membership in the
Trusteeship Council as Administering Authority for the Trust Territory of
Somaliland. I/ At its seventeenth session, the Council adopted 2j the proposals 3/
which, at its request, the Secretary-General had drawn up for that purpose and which
consisted principally of the deletion of supplementary rules A to H.
I/ See in this Supplement, under Article 86.
2/ T C (XVII), 695th mtg., paras. 32-Vf.
3/ T C (XVII), annexes, a.i. 12, T/1235 and T/L.633»
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Paragraphs
fr-7
Article 90
k. At the same time., the Council corrected a discrepancy which existed between the
English and French texts of rule 59 and which became apparent in the following
circumstances. The delegation of the USSR had presented k/ a proposal relating to the
holding of nuclear tests in a particular Trust Territory, which it later withdrew. The
representative of France thereupon requested 5/ that the draft resolution should be put
to the vote under rule 59, paragraph 2. He, however, did not adopt the proposal as his
own, as he should have done according to the English text of rule 59» A representative
noted 6/ this failure but the representative of France pointed out 7/ that the French
text did not contain a provision requiring him to adopt the draft resolution as his
own. Later in a memorandum 8/ the Secretary-General explained that an error had been
made in the French text during the initial drafting of the rules of procedure. He
proposed a revised French text conforming exactly to the English text. This proposed
text was approved £/ hy the Trusteeship Council during the same session.
p. At the conclusion of the seventeenth session, a revised text of the rules of
procedure 10/ was printed, incorporating the changes referred to in the preceding
paragraphs as well as those adopted at the fourteenth session.
6. With the exception mentioned below the President and Vice-President of the Council
have continued to be elected by secret and separate ballots, at the beginning of the
June session and to hold office throughout the following twelve months. They have
continued to be chosen in alternate years from among representatives, respectively, of
members which administer Trust Territories and those which do not. The one departure
from previous practice arose in respect of the fifth special session held in 1955
during the session of the General Assembly. Since it was known in advance that neither
the President nor the Vice-Président would be able to attend that session, the
Trusteeship Council at the close of its sixteenth session, decided ll/ to suspend
rule 19 of its rules of procedure and elected Mr. M. R. Urqufa (El Salvador), who had
previously held the office of President, to serve as Temporary President during the
special session. Particulars of the persons holding the offices of President and
Vice-Président appear in the annex to the present Article.
7» The rules of procedure of the Trusteeship Council relating to the time, place and
method of convening regular and special sessions of the Trusteeship Council were
observed with the single minor exception noted below. In fixing the opening date of
its seventeenth session at the close of the sixteenth session, the Council, in order
to allow the Administering Authorities time to study the reports of the 1955 Visiting
Mission to Togoland under British administration and Togoland under French
administration, and of the 1955 Visiting Mission to the Cameroons under British
administration and to the Cameroons under French administration, decided 12/ that the
seventeenth session should open on 7 February 1956 instead of during January, as
provided by rule 1.
T C (XVII), 671st, 673rd, and 67^th mtgs; T C (XVIl), annexes, a.i. 9, T/L.6^2.
T C (XVII), 67^th mtg., para. 77.
Ibid., para. 78.
para. 80.
T C (XVII), annexes, a.i. 12, T/12J5.
T C (XVII), 695th mtg., para. Vf.
United Nations Publication, Sales Wo.: 1956.1.15»
T C (XVI), 61fjrd mtg., para. 50.
T C (S-5), 652nd mtg., para. 15.
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Annex
Article 90
8. During its sixteenth session, the Council decided 13/ that a special session (its
fifth) should be called by the President on an appropriate date to consider the special
report of the Visiting Mission to Togoland under British administration and Togoland
under French administration, 1955• The special session was held from October to
December 1955- In addition to considering the Togoland unification problem and the
future of Togoland under British administration the Council made arrangements for the
1956 Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in the Pacific. At the close of its
eighteenth session, the Council decided Ifr/ that it would hold a further special
session opening on a date to be fixed by the President to consider the report submitted
by a Mission of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the
economic situation of Somaliland under Italian administration. There have been no
other proposals for special sessions.
9. There is no occasion to add here to what was said in the Repertory concerning other
essential features of the rules of procedure of the Council. The rules of procedure
of the Council and its practices governing the conduct of its business have remained
unchanged.
ANNEX
Sessions of the Trusteeship Council a/
Number of
session
Dates
Meetings
President
VicePrésident
Fifteenth
25 January to
28 March 1955
563rd to
6lOth
Mr. Miguel
Rafael Urqufa
(El Salvador)
Mr. Robert Bargues
(France)
Sixteenth
8 June to
22 July 1955
6llth to
Mr. Mason
Sears (United
States of
America)
Mr. Max H.
Dorsinville
(Haiti)
to
Mr. Miguel
Rafael Urqufa
(El Salvador)
-Temporary
President
Fifth
October to
special
December
session
1955
652nd
Seventeenth
7 February to
6 April 1956
653rd to
700th
Mr. Mason
Sears (United
States of
America)
Mr. Max H.
Dorsinville
(Haiti)
Eighteenth
7 June to
Ik August 1956
701st to
Mr. Rafik
Asha (Syria)
Mr. Remigio
Grillo (Italy)
a/ All sessions were held at United Nations Headquarters.
13/ T C (XVI), 633rd mtg., para. ^5.
iS/ T C (XVIII), 7^5th mtg., para. ^9.
299